It is better to make a new thread on WCIF. You can just mention old thread and not working link. Perhaps we have it saved elsewhere.

I've taken my time in answering this, but that's probably just as well. I have to be careful how I answer this. I don't want to hurt anybody -- neither my Sims nor my fellow-MTSers. After a couple of of posts about killing Sims, simsample made a light-hearted post on behalf of my Sims, who have never seen another Sim die since I started to play. I posted (I hope in a similarly light-hearted vein) to reassure my Sims that they are safe. Most of my post was addressed to them.

So now I'm describing how I play, and trying to explain why, but in no way am I trying to be judgemental about the way that other people play. To me the Sims is all about story-telling. Whether we plan a story or not, a story happens as our Sims act out their lives. I am well aware that, in always keeping my Sims alive, I limit the possibilities of their story. I appreciate that it is perfectly legitimate to let the characters in a story die, or even actively kill them. I don't think that Agatha Christie was a serial killer because she killed of so many characters in her books. (Indeed many of them were quite brutally murdered.) But personally I know I couldn't bring myself to kill a Sim -- they're just too lifelike. There's something about a Sim at rest that just says to me that they're alive. They're never completely still. They fidget. It's easy to believe that their breathing, that there's a little heart beating in their breast, that there's a little brain thinking all the time in their head. I'm quite convinced that, if I could put my arms round them and hug them, I'd feel that gently quivering warmth that says "Life!". And I just couldn't bring myself to put an end to that life. To me it would just feel so wrong, that I just couldn't do it. I find it all too easy to empathise with my Sims. I put myself in their situation, and then treat them as I'd like to be treated. And finally I love my Sims. And you don't hurt the ones you love. (Or at least you try not to hurt them.)

Well, it really wouldn't be for me. I tried watching the video, but I stopped after a couple of minutes because I found it too upsetting. It was changing to full screen mode that did it for me. Because then I could see the Sims as individuals. One minute alive and active, with all their hopes and fears, and the next lying lifeless on the battlefield with only the Grim Reaper coming for them. My old empathy for suffering Sims set in for me -- the scene just seemed to encapsulate the millennia-old futility of war. The way in which ordinary people's lives are destroyed by war, and always have been. It may be easier to play death and war in a fantasy game with lots of magic and supernatural elements than in a more realistic game like the one I claim to play. (I have described my game as "realistic with a hint of utopia". If I'm honest it may be more than a "hint".) With my disposition I think I would find it hard to play any "killing" game with realistic graphics. (I could just about manage Space Invaders!) But doing it with Sims would make it worse for me. Because I know that every Sim has a name, and has their wants (or hopes) and their fears. Moreover they have friends and they have families. Few Sims will die un-mourned -- no Sim is an island. I can be interested in wars and admire the skill of an admiral or general, but in the end, I find the amount of death and suffering in any war overwhelming. The American general Dwight D. Eisenhower hated addressing troops before an attack -- because he knew that some of the soldiers he was speaking to would be dead within hours -- killed carrying out his orders. There may be just wars but there are no "good" wars. The nearest that my Sims get to war is that they can serve in the armed forces in the Maxis Military Career. The actual fighting reminded me Homer's Iliad, parts of of which I read as a teen in school, mostly in translation but some bits in the original Greek. Homer never shrank from describing in graphic detail the horrific damage that even the primitive bronze weapons of his day could do to living bodies made of flesh and blood. It horrified me then and it still does. I can admire the skill and courage of those who fight wars, but can't help feeling that our world would be a better place without it. And, since I try to make my Sims world a little bit better than our own, I think my Sims and I will try to keep it free from wars.

So, as for your brave warriors, fallen in battle, whether the cause they fought and died for be just or be it pointless -- may Light Perpetual shine upon them.

Sunbee's comments are interesting. I try not to judge in a self-righteous way, but perhaps in a sense I do think that my way of playing is better. But only in the same way that Andrew and Julian think that their monogamous gay relationship is "better" than the promiscuous behaviour that characterizes much of the young gay scene in Greater Veronaville. They're on best friends terms with many of the boys in the promiscuous set. Indeed, last weekend Andrew and Julian took Jack Gill with them on their Valentine's Day outing. They went with him to Monopolis where they bought new clothes at Hotties, a new little fashion outlet that has opened there, and from there they took a taxi downtown to Gaia (Downtown Veronaville's biggest gay club) where the three of them enjoyed two meals (they were hungry!). From there Andrew and Julian went on to enjoy a dream date together (starting at Gaia and going on to PaintBoyz). (And they followed up the date with yet another meal out -- this time at TeenMealz in Greaves Avenue, where they chanced to meet up with Julian's younger sister and brother, Brigitte and Hans.) Andrew says, "I like Jack and he's good fun to take on an outing. But I don't want a romantic relationship with him. Julian and I have got each other. We don't need anybody else."

So I hope we're all still the best of friends, ready to go together on a metaphorical trip downtown, where, unlike the Real Life ones where I live, the shops and the restaurants are all open, offering their usual range of excellent wares and meals. Bon appetit!

@Freefalldreams Your Sims must all go to Heaven. If they've been living in dystopian megahood that we've been reading about over the last few years, then they've already done their time in Purgatory!

Come to think of it, if I thought my Sims were going to Heaven, I might be a lot happier about letting them die. After putting up with me for so long I'm sure they deserve an eternity of perpetual bliss! :lovestruc

Haven't played University in long time. Made my own, populated by aliens/freaks. In the main hood, 2 houses were glitched (or sims?). Now the dorm I'm playing is glitched. Dormies don't take care of their needs. I had a few Sims try to interact with them, and they were mean! I controlled them; most of their needs were red. Then my playables stopped minding, stood around twitching, and falling out of chairs. I suspect drugs.

There's a Pescado mod (I forget what it's called) that stops dormies taking proper care of themselves. It tends to make them drop dead when they come back from classes. You haven't by any chance put it in in the past and forgotten that you had it?

The mod is called nouniprotect, though I think that just allows Dormies to go into motive failure if certain needs aren't met; they can die if hunger isn't looked after for example. I believe it's normal for Dormies to be terrible at looking after themselves.

If a sim's needs aren't met, they get nightmares. If my needs aren't met I get sleep paralysis. Which is worse than nightmares because you're partially awake. O.O
Maybe I'm a sim after all!

Was thinking today I was sort of interested in doing a BACC, but all the money rules seem like more than I want to do. But if I don't do any of that, then what's even the point? It'd just be any other custom hood then.

I'm doing a BACC with no money rules. Just establish different criteria for unlocking things than money.

==
No, don't have. But I'm off to find it; sounds fun.

I was watching Pleasant Sims/Cindy's last Edgewood stream and she made a comment how the kitchen she was decorating looked like a black & white photo when she tried out a gray flooring.

It made me think what an interesting idea that'd be, if you could get enough cc in shades of black/gray/white, and default replacements and stuff, if you could turn your whole game that way. (or else mess with your computer's display...) And then you could pretend you had like an old-timey town or whatever.

There was at one time an entire neighborhood featured here that was based on a movie in black and white. I cannot remember the name of it, nor can I locate it. It was a complete build set and houses in black and white. Have no idea if it's been removed. Does anyone remember what I'm talking about?

Pleasantville or something? ICad made a horizon for it, I'm pretty sure.

That was it-but I could have sworn there was an entire set for it, all black and white-walls furniture, and even a couple of houses-in the Theme section. I checked, and if we had it, went away.

Is Retroville what you're thinking of?

It was Retroville by the Mod Squad!
https://modthesims.info/d/79351

Thank you both! I knew I'm not crazy, but could not remember the name of it.

I was thinking about how much value a lot could contain posted a picture in Sims stuff picture thread. based on the NCL gold bars. valued at 32k a bar, 12 per shelf, 7 shelves per rack (and a single bar on the floor), 60 x 60 lot size adjusting for road tiles (so 50 x 60) and outer limits for walls (47 x 56) then 15 stories (since 16 crashes the game) I calculated the grand total.
32k x 85 bars ($2,720,000) x 2632m² ($7,159,040,000) x 15 stories =$107,385,600,000 Simoleons! on a single lot.
or 3,355,800 individual gold bars!
ten lots to a trillionare and well within the richest in existence.
though of course either I or the game will give up well before then.

Sims have got other ways of telling us what they'd like to do apart from their wants panel. Andrew was practicing chess on his own in his bedroom. (I suppose it's his and Julian's bedroom now.) When he'd finished washing the breakfast dishes Julian came up the stairs, evidently intending to do something with Andrew. When he got to the top of the stairs he paused, apparently uncertain what to do. I suggested that he joined Andrew playing chess. He walked round to the chess table by a very circuitous route, but when he reached it, he didn't stop but continued to the bed. He tidied the bed up a little, and then lay down on it to relax -- almost completely naked! It didn't leave much doubt as to what Julian wanted to do.

"Andrew," I said, "I think Julian's thought of something better to do than play chess."

"So I see!" said Andrew, and he put the chessmen away. I'm sure he had a twinkle in his eye as he walked over to the bed.

Soon they were kissing and cuddling on the bed, and then Julian was on top of Andrew as they made out. Then they were under the bedclothes having woohoo!

Oh! It's good to see my friends so happy. They've been having woohoo at least twice a day since they got married. "Making up for lost time!" says Julian. :lovestruc

Have I missed something or are you yet to post pictures of the wedding!

Last night, I wanted to get some of my Pleasantview done. However, before I could load my game up, I fell ill. So that was my plans ruined I'll have to try again tonight.

No. I've been very naughty and gone on playing instead of posting on what we've done. I'll post some ASAP in the Wedding Pictures thread. I'll have to spoiler some because we took so many.

Be careful. I recall that you have "Real Sickness". It may have spread to Real Life. Take plenty of bed rest and drink large quantities of Grandma's Comfort Soup. Get Well Soon!

AndrewGloria, this was absolutely beautiful. I love your attitude to your Sims and the representation they have of life. I love to see generations pass and children born and the way genetics fuse to make generation after generation of beautiful Sims, so I have them run as realistic a lifespan as I can. But the respect you have for the lives of your Sims and reading about the fun they must have gives me such joy.

I appreciated reading this from @AndrewGloria as well. I think adults process things through play, kind of like kids do, so playing bad things doesn't usually turn us into bad people. But it is worth reflecting on the way our games do shape our thinking.

It makes me think of the very first time I played Civilization, at my friend's house when I was in high school. IIRC in the original Civilization there weren't many (any?) ways to interact with other civs besides warring on them, so when I found another civilization my friend encouraged me to attack them. I was horrified at the idea of just starting a war out of the blue for no reason, and he made fun of me for this.

I got the game myself not long after and quickly got used to making war. And spent many happy hours playing it, and Civ 2, 3, and 4 as well. Then somewhere along the line I learned a lot more about colonialism and how it operates, and once I could see how it underpins all the premises of the games -- how would you even make those games without it? I don't think you can -- I circled back to being uncomfortable with playing it.

I agree with the others who have said it would seem weird and unnecessary to judge how other people play their games. I think it's down to how we all process things in different ways. It does seem like a good thing to pay attention to what we are learning from our games. And this forum is great for learning from other people about their games, too. I'm glad to have had the chance to hear about how life-affirming AndrewGloria's Sims game is. I tend to put my sims through some very dark stuff. The idea of protecting them and loving them really speaks to me, though. Thank you for that, AG!

CASnarl, I don't think it has much to do with age - I'm ancient and I have had so much fun torturing sims and removing pool ladders and doors. Before that, I used to throw park visitors in ponds in Roller Coaster Tycoon just for the fun of it, so I've definitely done my share of serial killing of pixels. But in real life I'm a convinced pacifist and a bit of a hippie and these days I'm finding it hard to see even pixels suffer.

CASnarl I nearly replied to your thread about "disposing" of townies, but didn't want to appear judgemental. But the truth is that I found it very disturbing. "Disturbing" because you seemed to be using using the language of genocide. Every single townie was to be killed. None must survive. Moreover those who did the killing must themselves be killed. No one must be left alive who could remember the killing. Their carcasses mustn't be allowed to contaminate our graveyards -- they must be buried far away in a remote graveyard which no one must ever visit. In short you seemed to be seeking a Final Solution (Endlösung) to the Townie problem. They should be completely expunged from the history of the neighbourhood. Apart from that remote and inaccessible graveyard, no trace that they had ever existed should remain. I nearly suggested gassing them with Zyklon-B as a method to kill them.

I hope you can understand why I found that disturbing. It sounded as if you had some sort of visceral hatred of Townies. So I'm kind of glad you relented as far as the children and teens are concerned. Meadow Thayer should be safe.

But, be warned, those who practice genocide usually take the precaution of killing the children too. What if some time in the future some of these children should stumble across the neglected graveyard and start to work out who the people buried there might have been? Might they not then seek to wreak a terrible vengeance on the playables that they deem responsible for the massacre? [I hope I'm not giving you ideas for a story!] The result can then be decades, or even centuries, of hatred and war.

Even when they don't kill them, some Simmers seem to have an unreasoning hatred of townies. Don't let your children play with their children. Don't let your teens date their teens. It's like a fear of racial contamination. Why?

Seriously, why do you want to kill them? What's wrong with "Live and let live"?
. . . . .
Your post reminded me of the closing words of an anthem that I sang some 60 years ago on Remembrance Day as a child. It's by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the words are taken from the apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus (aka The Book of Sirach). They made such an impression on me that I have remembered them ever since. From being very quiet, the music rises to a crescendo in the last line:

And some there be, which have no memorial;
who are perished, as though they had never been. . .
Their bodies are buried in peace;
but their name liveth for evermore.